Know Your Camel
24 Jan
Home, sweet home — or homes.
It’s a happy, festive season. I made it to Madras and Pondicherry for Christmas, KL for New Year, London for someone’s birthday, am now on my way to Singapore for Chinese New Year, and will klaap baan tii krung thep for post-Chinese New Year business.
And I’m kind of tired of travelling. I hate airports, I hate airplanes, and I hate that I sleepwalk through airports, belt in hand (being too lazy to put it back on after security), far too often these days. I could do with a little normalcy for the coming year.
What’s not too normal is that I’m running off to random cities in the Gulf and the Middle East on the weekends, like it’s just… next door. Which it kind of is, I guess (Sanaa next!).
Last weekend, I didn’t venture too far from ‘home’ (home for now, Dubai) — I was in Al Ain, a city in next door Abu Dhabi, because I wanted to see the camel souk (market).
And here’s what I found. It’s worth it just to see footage of me riding camels (badly), and I promise you that at 04:24 you will find the most AWESOME video you have ever seen of that creature. Promise. Blob, blob, blob.
Go see it. Took plenty of wine, and nagging, to kick me into completing it.
Meanwhile, if you — in the rare chance — know of anybody who makes Tamil hiphop or rap. Please, please, please get in touch, pronto.
I can’t wait to get out of the time vortex that is The Airport, into another plane, and off it quickly so I can hug my mum and dad and drink a ton of soup at this year’s reunion dinner. If there’s anything I’ve learned from my time abroad, it’s that… I’m really, really Chinese. And I crave a good clear Chinese soup and roast duck more than anything else.
Happy Year of the Ox! That makes me 24, and diligent and hardworking for the last 23 (ha).
I don’t know what it is with me and camels, but… these things like me a lot.
